ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the Islamic revival in Central Asia from the demise of the former Soviet Union. The Islamic revival in Central Asia represented a more visible Islam in the public sphere as part of the process of the development of state and ethnic identities. There are two dynamics to the Islamic Revival in Central Asia. The first is domestic and emerged from the desire of local societies and governments to underline a break with the Soviet past and to integrate traditional Islamic heritage into the new policy of identity in each country. The second was external, from various Islamic influences such as Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian subcontinent and, to a lesser extent, Iran, through a mixture of both government and private channels. The combination of local and global factors, under the supervision of a strictly secular state, has engendered a form of national Islam in each country where the religious is subservient to politics.
